Blue Bird – Chapter two: Charcoal and Text Messages

Naruto stood outside his maths class, he was counting to thirty in his head a little tradition he had that he did every day when he went to see Iruka sensei. 28.29.30, with that Naruto knocked hard on the door.

"Come in" The light-hearted voice of Naruto's maths teacher floated through the door and Naruto felt himself relax as he always did before entering the room. Iruka sat at his desk marking papers a task he always left until the time that Naruto was there as he knew the young man didn't mind just talking to him. Iruka was wearing a grey suit with a white shirt and no tie, he looked just like he always did to Naruto, like the father that he had never had the fortune to have. Iruka was the closest thing to family Naruto had besides Sakura who was like a sister to him.

"So Naruto I take it you're going to continue coming here from now until you graduate?" Iruka asked

"Well I want to...but if I'm getting in your way Iruka sensei I can stop coming" Naruto ended the sentence almost whispering, a feeling of dread creeping up within him at the prospect of losing another person in his life.

"There's no reason for you to stop coming after all I enjoy your company Naruto, even if you're not the most enthusiastic student I have ever met." Iruka smiled at Naruto as he spoke making Naruto feel at home like he always did.

"So anyway how are you enjoying the first week of your sophomore year?" Iruka asked curiously.

"It's been good, it's nice starting the year actually having friends this time. Freshman year was horrible for the first few months, you know what with the bullies... oh sorry Iruka I know you don't like me getting all emo on you" Naruto looked apologetically at Iruka as though he had just done the worst thing possible.

"Its fine Naruto, I can understand that you would be frustrated and angry after what happened to you in your freshman year, no-one expects you not to talk about it." Iruka was looking at Naruto very sympathetically. "Also it's not that I never want you to be sad I know that that's impossible, hell your fifteen I'm surprised you're as positive as you are but I don't like it when you bottle it up, I'd prefer you to talk to me or Sakura about it."

Naruto walked up behind Iruka and gave him a quick hug, "Thank you Iruka sensei." Naruto then blushed before quickly leaving as the bell rang, muttering a rushed goodbye to Iruka before leaving.

Naruto was standing in front of an easel preparing for his class by sorting through his orange 'just do it' bag pulling out all of his drawing equipment. Naruto normally wouldn't be early to a class let alone actually preparing for it, however this was art, the one lesson that not only Naruto enjoyed but that he was actually good at already being called the best artist in his year, not that Naruto would let people know he gave a damn about the class. Soon Hinata had slipped in next to him setting up her own equipment giving him a quick smile before Kurenai sensei cleared her throat to get everyone's attention.

"Is everyone here? ...Good, now today we're going to be doing still life drawings using charcoal, so everyone grab a few objects that they would like to draw and begin in your own time." Kurenai sensei stated while looking over her class, she was wearing a simple red t-shirt with a long white skirt.

"Again with the still life drawings, gods are we ever going to get to do anything at least a bit more advanced?" Naruto harshly whispered to Hinata making the short girl giggle slightly.

"Hinata-chan, could you come over here for a moment?" Kurenai sensei was standing in front of her desk along with two older looking students. One wore a dark grey hoody and a pair of black glasses which hid his eyes, the other wore a brown unzipped hoody over a black top; he wore blue jeans with this and a pair of brown trainers, his hair was spiky and was a dark brown colour but what stood out most to Naruto was the boys piercing eyes which were quite literally slits.

Hinata slowly walked over and Kurenai began to quickly talk to the three of them. Naruto gave up trying to listen after a while taking much more interest in his art, he had decided to slightly ignore Kurenai sensei's original request and instead decided to draw her, Hinata and the two mystery boys instead, after all he had always preferred doing portraits of other people more than any other kind of art.

...Forty-five minutes later, Kurenai had just finished talking to the three of them and there were barely ten minutes left of the lesson. Naruto had yet to completely finish his work, he had drawn all four of them but after doing the shading on them he had decided to shade the area around them but he hadn't managed to surround Kurenai sensei with shading yet.

It was while he was drawing that he began to notice that the brown haired boy was actually quite attractive...okay that was definitely an understatement on Naruto's part the boy was very good looking, he had broad shoulders and he looked like he had quite a defined physique, the least you could say was that he definitely didn't have any fat on him and his face wasn't sore to look at either. Problem was that all of this and his height over Kurenai sensei led to one conclusion, he was a junior jock which also meant he had to be straight, had a super hot girlfriend, was having sex on a regular basis, he was probably your typical popular and he was also probably homophobic.

Kurenai sensei turned to the class, "Right everyone let's turn our easels in to face the centre and admire each other's works of art." Kurenai sensei had a certain twinkle in her eye this was her favourite part of her lesson, being able to see and congratulate everyone on their artwork.

Naruto suddenly became very self conscious of his drawing ability. This was the first time he had drawn a picture of an actual person that they themselves would look at, sure he had drawn Hinata and Sakura before, even Iruka sensei but they were all in his personal drawing pad and he never let anyone look inside that so they had never seen the drawings. He therefore chose to stand against the back of his easel rather than turning it around like he normally did, there was no way anyone was going to see this, not if he had anything to say about it.

"Naruto, why aren't you showing us your picture, did you do nothing again?" Kurenai looked distraught, why did her best student have to not give a crap?

"Um...Kurenai sensei, he drew something alright it just wasn't what you exactly asked for" a quite deep voice said from behind Naruto's easel. Naruto spun around the easel only to find both the boys and Hinata admiring his work on the other side, Naruto sighed, well if they had already seen it he may as well let everybody else in the class see it, it's not like any of their opinions mattered to him anyway.

He turned the easel only to receive a very audible gasp from Kurenai sensei and 'wow's from his classmates. Kurenai was staring at the easel as though it was a precious jewel, Naruto knew she liked her art but he had only ever seen her react like that when she was looking at a really good piece of artwork. Admittedly Naruto had outdone himself on this piece but he didn't think it was the best thing he had ever done, but then again the only thing he had drawn better than it no-one had ever seen.

"Naruto this is incredible, you really captured the moment perfectly, and you did this so neatly with charcoal it's incredible!" Kurenai exclaimed.

"You really have done an amazing job of this Naruto; I think it's the best of yours I've actually seen!" Hinata was just as amazed, but at least she caught on to the fact that Naruto had better, he just refused to show her.

"You did a good job kid, you made me look hot in this picture, not that I'm not actually hot but still you captured it well." Oh this guy was a jock; he was too up himself not to be.

The bell rang at last and Naruto quickly rolled his art up like everyone else and placed it in his folder, he would spray it when he got home to make sure it didn't smudge. He found Hinata, the jock and the hoody guy waiting outside the class, apparently waiting for him. He finally had a chance to notice the other boy who was with the jock, he looked around the same age but he had no facial expression and he hadn't spoken a word since he had first seen him, so Naruto was officially creeped out by him.

"Naruto, this is Kiba and Shino." She then motioned to the jock and the creepy dude, "All of our parents requested we have private art lessons with Kurenai sensei, it's why they were in our class today." Hinata explained, all the while with a sweet smile a twinkle appearing in her eyes which Naruto noticed she always got when she met new people.

"Hey your name is Naruto right?" Kiba asked, "Hinata told us your name, hope we can be friends even if we're not in the same year but that shouldn't interfere now should it!" Kiba stated with a wide grin. Okay it was safe to say Naruto liked Kiba he was friendly and seemed easy to get along with, nothing like the jocks that he was used to.

"That sounds good, well it's a pleasure to meet you Kiba, Shino but I kinda have to get going." Naruto wasn't really in a rush but he did need to be home by 4:30 if he wanted to make sure no-one broke into his apartment.

"Okay well we'll see you round school then bye Naruto, Hinata." Kiba gave a quick wave and left towards the schools car park, while Shino nodded mutely and slowly made his way after Kiba.

Naruto and Hinata walked to the bus stop in comfortable silence. That was what he loved about Hinata, she only started a conversation if she wants to she won't force herself just to get rid of a silence.

"So...what did you think of Kiba?" Hinata was staring at Naruto with a playful curiosity.

"He seems nice, a lot nicer than our year's jocks, and he seems to be quite relaxed even around new people... he's good looking too." The last part of Naruto's sentence had once again reached a whisper; he didn't like talking about people he was attracted to, even though he had accepted himself thanks to his friends he still felt a slight distaste for it.

"Wow you actually think someone's attractive for once, this must be big!" Hinata's playfulness was welcoming to Naruto, Hinata always knew exactly what to say and when to say it; perhaps it was because she was brought up in the sophisticated Hyuga family.

A black car pulled up as they sat at the bus stop, Hinata's ride, her father insisted that she be driven to and from school however she was able to convince her driver to always drop her off and pick her up from the bus stop so she could at least walk part of the way with her friends.

"Bye Naruto, I'll see you tomorrow." She gave Naruto a quick peck on the cheek before she jumped in her car and was driven off down the road, leaving Naruto to wait for his bus alone.

Naruto was lying in his bed, just thinking, he did it often before he went to bed. He glanced sideways at his clock 10:36pm it read, he really should be getting to bed sometime soon.

Naruto began to think about his day; about Sakura and Hinata, about Sasuke, about Iruka sensei, and finally about Kiba, that boy was the last thing he needed to think about before going to bed, he knew what would happen if he did go to sleep thinking about him and that would just make everything worse.

Just then he heard his phone vibrate once, a text, at this time that was unusual for Naruto. He picked up his phone and didn't recognise the number, probably another hate text telling me to kill myself, god these can get annoying, but alas upon opening the text it turned out to be something very different.

'Hey its Kiba, Hinata gave me your number, anyway I convinced Hinata's dad to let me drive her to school from now on, and I was wondering if you maybe wanted a lift too?'

Naruto was shocked to say the least, one, how the hell did Kiba convince Hinata's father to do anything for her he's a prick, two, why would he want me to join, and lastly, HOLYCRAPIGETALIFTOFFKIBA!

Naruto quickly replied after his little thought, 'Sure I live at apartment B20 on Uzu Lane, are you sure you're alright with this?'

Then Naruto waited, normally he wouldn't wait for a text but this one was kind of important...he waited...and waited

Then his phone vibrated and he practically answered it before it had even rung.

'Of course I'm sure, I look out for my friends, and I'll pick you up at about 8:10, see ya'

Naruto then closed his eyes and drifted off, sleep overcame him quickly, and sadly he had forgotten about his thoughts before Kiba's text because Kiba was the only thing on Naruto's mind as he fell into a deep slumber.